January 10, 2008

It is a very relaxing experience to walk along a levada through woods and fields.
The levada Nova in the Western part of Madeira is quite an easy walk and very varied.
Local agencies organise the walks, but it is quite easy to do a walk on your own as well: although there are hardly any signposts, the “levada” carrying the water across the island usually clearly identifies the correct way.

April 11, 2004

Usually, I’m very reluctant to use filters: polarization filters are very nice to eliminate or enhance reflections, make for a much more dramatic sky or saturated colours.
I sometimes use a neutral gray filter to reduce contrasts (the filter darkens the bright parts of the picture) and a UV filter may be handy in the mountains or at the seaside.
Colour Filters are something different altogether: even if you can change the colour of the sky to a beautiful blue, the rest of the photo will make clear that something is wrong.

Here’s one example, where I liked the effect of a tobacco filter:

Without Filter:

In this case, I prefer the mood with filter to the unfiltered original. It actually comes closer to what I saw on this rainy day in Blandy’s Garden, Madeira (Portugal)

March 21, 2004

“Madeira” means “wood” in Portuguese - and even today large parts of the island are covered by woods.
Nowadays, most of the woods are mainly Eucalyptus (gum) trees, whereas the native laurel trees are only restricted to small part of the inner island.
In any case, it’s nice to walk here, although the whether may change any minute and fog may close in on you very rapidly.

All photos on Travelphoto NET: Copyright Laurenz Bobke.
Copyright for the photos on the Outstanding Travel Photos blog: the individual photographer Republication only with my written permission, and only with proper credit (including a link back to this site if shown on the web).